Oats, rice, beans, pancake mix, those gross canned peas…to anyone who has been to a food bank, this is a non-exhaustive list of things that tend to be staples in their pantry.

So my question is this, to anyone who has been to a food bank:

What are some meals that you’ve been pleasantly surprised when you made them out of the most common ingredients you got from the food bank?

For me, it’s probably really simple black bean burgers.

Cook up some canned black beans, mash them while warm. When they’re colder throw in some breadcrumbs and an egg, mash them more, add whatever spices you like, and then form them into burgers. Fry them with whatever oil or margarine or butter that you happen to have that week. Ketchup is surprisingly good on these.

I eat them on bread usually, since if I’m going to the food bank that week I probably don’t have the money for buns and food banks here offer buns rarely.